About 3-4,000 Russian citizens joined anti-government fighters during Kiev crackdown in Ukraine’s east, says the leader of Donetsk independent republic, noting that self-defense fighters have never concealed this fact.

"They [Russian volunteers] are among us, people of Donbass
[Region, eastern Ukraine] because we are blood brothers,”
said the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk
People’s Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, in an interview to
Russian media.

“There is no secret that among the volunteers from Russia
there are many military men. They are fighting together with us
because they understand that it’s their duty,” he added.

“I think that only among Russians is there a heightened
feeling of sorrow and human misfortune, only they are able to
travel to any part of the world, die, fight for the independence
and freedom of people.”

He added that Russian volunteers prefer “to spend their
summer holidays not at the seaside, but among their brothers who
are fighting for the freedom of Donbass [Region, eastern
Ukraine].”

Zakharchenko said that Kiev authorities and Western countries are
repeatedly talking about a Russian ‘military invasion’
to justify the mass defeats of the Ukrainian army in the
country’s east.

‘Militia to keep fighting to protect civilians’

Kiev is using the tactics of “scorched earth” during its military
campaign in the south-east of Ukraine, Aleksandr Zakharchenko
told RIA Novosti.

“They hit the densely populated areas; destroy, first of all,
the facilities of water, electricity and gas supply, social
infrastructure; they try to spread fear and panic. But they don’t
succeed,” Zakharchenko said.

“We’ve been gathering strength for a long time. We held on
and prepared a return blow. We’ve delivered it and we’ll continue
an active struggle for the liberation of the Donetsk and Lugansk
Regions from the occupants,” he added.

The standoff with the government forces isn’t just about warfare
for the self-defense forces, but a humanitarian operation as
well, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic
stressed.

“One of our main goals is to push the enemy away from the big
cities, denying him the opportunity to shell from all existing
weapons the densely populated neighborhoods of large cities where
there are hundreds of thousands of people – women, the elderly,
children – reside,” he explained.

They don’t understand any other approach because it doesn’t
matter to them, whom to kill in the east, Zakharchenk stressed.

“But we will explain it to them in a way that they’ll
understand,” he concluded.

Since Kiev launched its ‘anti-terrorist’ operation
against eastern Ukrainian regions in April, Ukraine has faced a
violent internal conflict and humanitarian catastrophe.

United Nations data released Tuesday, over 2,249 people have so
far been killed and over 6,033 wounded in the fighting in eastern
Ukraine. The number of internally-displaced Ukrainians has
reached 190,000, with another 207,000 finding refuge in Russia,
the UN said.